Ms S V Brown v Standard Life Assets and Employee Services Ltd — 2025

This was an open preliminary hearing in Ms S V Brown's equal pay case against Standard Life Assets and Employee Services Ltd. The tribunal was dealing with amendment, strike out and postponement applications before the final hearing listed for 20 January 2025, and it made no finding on the substantive merits of the claims.

The respondent's application to amend its response dated 31 December 2024 was granted in full. The claimant's application to amend her claim dated 25 December 2024 was allowed only so far as it sought to include the issue of car allowance. Her proposed amendments to add a claim of constructive unfair dismissal and to extend the equal pay period from March 2024 to 31 January 2025 were refused.

The claimant's strike out application, which focused on without prejudice settlement communications about payment into her pension plan, was refused. The tribunal preferred the respondent's submission that unambiguous impropriety was not stateable on the material before it and that strike out would not be an appropriate remedy even if the claimant's account were accepted.

The claimant's postponement application was also refused. Applying the overriding objective and Rule 30A, the tribunal found no exceptional circumstances, noted that the claimant appeared able to represent herself, and considered that postponement would cause avoidable delay and prejudice in an already complex equal pay case. As case-management matters, the respondent agreed to provide comparator feedback documents voluntarily, and the question of indirect discrimination was left to correspondence or the first day of the hearing.